Ginger Almond Brownies with White Chocolate

Some of my friends have been accusing me of grandma-like behaviors lately. It’s probably because of my cooking obsession’s effect on my former going-out-every-night obsession.

I’m social, I swear. I just prefer to socialize less in bars these days… the cold weather doesn’t make it easy to leave my warm house after work, and cooking at home is cheaper and healthier (on occasion). Anyway, another accusation along those lines came from a friend of mine last night. Background: we had plans to see the NYC Ballet, but he emailed me saying he probably could not make it, so I nonchalantly gave the tickets to my roommate because I’ll be seeing another show on Friday. The roommate really wanted them anyway. Then the friend retracted the statement about not having time for the ballet. He has great timing, considering I had already forced someone else into taking them. In turn, he invited me to a Glee party, but I reverted to my grandma-like self and declined, took a nap, watched Glee on my own, and later experimented in the kitchen.

The inspiration? Blonde brownies, which I discovered as a college freshman living in the dorms at UC Santa Barbara. We used to smuggle blondies out of the DLG by the pound. So I started researching blondie recipes to see which ones sounded the best, which led to me making improvements by adding flavors and generally substituting almond flour for portions of all-purpose flour. I forgot to bring them to the office this morning, but if there’s still enough tomorrow morning I definitely will.

(I’m at work, and had to use an online derivative of photoshop. This photo sucks, but the concept works, I promise. I’ll fix it when I get home).

WHAT YOU NEED:

Preheated oven to 350 degrees

10-12 inch baking dish (I used a round pyrex casserole dish)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, aka 1 stick, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups white chocolate chips (divided)

WHAT TO DO:

First combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix until smooth, then add the flour, vanilla, egg, flour, salt, ginger, and 1 cup white chocolate chips. Once the batter is finished, pour it into your baking dish, and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

When the blondies are finished, set the pan out to cool over night. In the meantime, however, melt the remaining white chocolate chips over a double boiler and spread over the surface of the blondies. Once cooled completely, they are ready to devour.